Terminals, Displays, Screens, Workstations and Monitors
At that time, the terms terminal, display, screen, workstation and monitor were used interchangeably to describe the same thing, although today only the first one is considered the appropriate one (other ones evolved to reflect other uses). Although not consistently in any manner, IBM preferred term at that moment was monitor.
An operator basically sat in front of this device that vaguely resembled today's PC, except the monitor was smaller, the device was more expensive (US$2,000), it featured a text-only (24×80) interface and the available colors for the screen were only green and bright green, although a seven-color IBM Color Monitors later became available. Some purists refer to a printer as one type of workstation.
Read more about this topic: IBM System/36
Famous quotes containing the word monitors:
“The information links are like nerves that pervade and help to animate the human organism. The sensors and monitors are analogous to the human senses that put us in touch with the world. Data bases correspond to memory; the information processors perform the function of human reasoning and comprehension. Once the postmodern infrastructure is reasonably integrated, it will greatly exceed human intelligence in reach, acuity, capacity, and precision.”
—Albert Borgman, U.S. educator, author. Crossing the Postmodern Divide, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1992)